2023 Impact Factor: 0.7
2023 Google Scholar h5-index: 11
ISSN: 1520-3972
E-ISSN: 1531-3298
Editor: Mark Kramer
The Journal of Cold War Studies features peer-reviewed articles based on archival research in the former Communist world, in Western countries, and in other parts of the globe. Articles in the journal draw on declassified materials and new memoirs to illuminate and raise questions about numerous historical and theoretical concerns: theories of decision-making, deterrence, bureaucratic politics, institutional formation, bargaining, diplomacy, foreign policy conduct, and international relations. Using the latest evidence, the authors subject these theories, and others, to rigorous empirical analysis. The journal also includes an extensive section of reviews of new books pertaining to the Cold War and international politics.
The journal is published by the MIT Press for the Harvard Project on Cold War Studies.
Spring 2022 Editor's Note
On 24 February 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin launched what he called a “special military operation” against neighboring Ukraine. This unprovoked war has caused immense bloodshed, suffering, and destruction in Ukraine and has been accompanied in Russia by the reimposition of Soviet-style censorship and severe repression against anyone who questions the war. Whatever Putin’s motives may be, his brutal actions and cruelty deserve unequivocal condemnation. Over the past quarter century, the JCWS has been pleased to publish articles and book reviews by scholars from Ukraine and Russia as well as from other countries, and I deeply regret that Putin’s aggression and malevolent crackdown have endangered so many people and cast doubt on the future of scholarly cooperation and archival openness.